The question of what a good conversion rate is for e-merchants are among the most commonly asked questions we receive at SEO Melbourne. In this blog post I will find out the answer to the question.
We start by looking at average conversion rates from Monetate who have investigated this.
Now I will explain why these numbers do not really mean so much.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
You may have heard the quotation ” Lies, damned lies, and statistics ” from Benjamin Disraeli. There are some issues with looking at the numbers above.
One problem is that the conversion rate between different industries varies greatly. A typical conversion rate for electronics often differs greatly from a typical conversion rate for SaaS (Software as a Service).
Let’s say you’ll find the clue for your industry. What should you do with that number? What does it really tell you? Whether you’re above or below the average, you’ll still want to improve your conversion rate.
Let’s look at more average numbers to illustrate how little they really tell
These are sectional figures for computers, mobiles and tablets.
Here you can see, for example, that the conversion rate for mobile on average is much lower on mobile phones. It is true that you often use the mobile to watch a site but then go to the computer to complete the purchase, so the “real” conversion rate for people who found you via the mobile phone is actually higher.
But how many of the sites involved in compiling these statistics have a website that actually works well on a phone or mobile? If 50% of the sites included in the survey did not have pages that work well on mobile / tablet, these statistics are misleading.
I know from our experience that mobiles should not convert so much less than computers as above statistics show, so do not use it as a measure of whether your sites mobile traffic converts well.
Why a website’s overall conversion rate is not that interesting
For example, let me illustrate why a website’s conversion rate is not the only number you should be interested in.
Example Day 1: 5% conversion rate. (4000 visitors 200 sales)
Exempeldag 2: 10% conversion rate (500 visitors, 50 sales)
If we only look at the conversion rate then Day 2 is better. But if the extra visitors you received on day 1 came to the site at a low cost then day 1 is the best. All traffic does not convert as well, but some traffic can be very cheap and ultimately you want to have as high a profit and return on investment as possible.
This shows that the conversion rate is not the best Key Performance Indicator ( KPI ).
What to look at instead
What you should look at is more specific, segmented conversion rates. Ask questions like:
What is my conversion rate:
- For different browsers? (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox)
- For the different versions of the browsers (All do not have the latest ones)
- The differences between computer / tablet / mobile
- Between different kinds of mobiles (Samsung S7, S6, iPhone6, 7, Google Pixel etc.)
- For new recurring traffic
- Search traffic vs. other traffic sources
- Different countries and regions
- What is your bounce rate and exit rate for different pages?
- How many page views do you have on session?
Here is an example of a site:
The conversion rate is 3.84% . I have sorted out countries that have only few conversions so the statistics will not be misleading and then sorted by the countries with the lowest conversion rate.
We see that some countries, such as Hungary, have a very low conversion rate. In Hungary, you may trade less online than in other countries, but it does not mean that the conversion rate should be so low, it can always be improved.
We also see that England’s conversion rate is lower than average and lower than the US which is weird (this company is based in Europe.) You may also remember from the statistics at the outset that England should “have” higher conversion rates than the US.
So what can we do with this list now? What can we improve?
We should go deeper and try to find out why Hungary converts poorer by, for example, researching the site and then building hypotheses. But we can play with the thought and ask us why Hungary converts so much worse? Perhaps those who visit the page from Hungary or England, for that matter, are unsure that the company actually ships goods to Hungary or England or they do not know how long it takes. One could try to have a message on the page from visitors from different countries (triggered depending on what IP address the visitor has) saying “Hi! We ship goods to Hungary, it only takes 3 days! “.
We could also try to translate the sites into different languages and then start with, for example, Germany that has a high turnover but a low conversion rate.
As you can see, when you go deeper, the beginning makes sense to look at specific conversion rates.
Summary
The important thing when working with Conversion Optimiser and looking at conversion rates is not the overall conversion rate without segmenting the data available to find different specific conversion rates and other KPIs. Then you can find statistics that stand out and then analyze why the problem exists, get a potential solution and then try it. If you know what to look for, you can always improve your conversion rates.
If you have any questions, please feel free to write in the comments below and I will reply to it. All’s Well!